#24 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[deck1134]

Dear PowerScore Staff,

I was curious about why E is wrong in this question. Isn't it true that the author does use the abolishon of slavery and serfdom as to "emphasize the underlying similarities between the two institutions" as stated in line 5? Isn't it an example of the system's "significant compatibility?"

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

While that is true in a larger sense, Deck, it doesn't answer the question that was asked, which was why the author mentioned the timing of the abolition of both systems. The timing didn't illustrate a similarity in the systems, because we learned nothing about how they each ended and whether they did so in similar or different ways. They key language to answer this question is back in the first paragraph, right where we were told that the two systems ended around the same time:

Moreover, the almost simultaneous abolition of Russian serfdom and United States slavery in the 1860s- a riveting coincidence that should have drawn more modern scholars to a comparative study of the two systems of servitude- has failed to arouse the interest of scholars.

He told us right there that the coincidence should have drawn more scholarly attention, and that's answer C.